The Oxford Picture Dictionary: English/Chinese

Rating:
Summary: NOT for people trying to learn Chinese
Review: I am trying to learn Chinese, and in seeing my toddler learn English by repeatedly looking at picturebooks, I thought a picture dictionary in Chinese would be a good way to learn every day objects in Chinese. Unfortunately, this book has the English word and the Chinese IN CHINESE CHARACTERS. NO pinyin, no bopomofo pronounciation. For the non-Chinese reader, you'll have to look up every single word. So, though this book may be good for Chinese students learning English, it is of limited usefulness to students learning Chinese. Frankly, I think this is an extremely stupid mistake by the publishers of this book. The editors should be flogged!

Rating:
Summary: Great for Teaching EFL
Review: I used this book extensively while teaching college level EFL in the Peoples Republic of China. It was very helpful in identifying words like "blender"; the pictures taught a lot about how a house actually looked in the USA. Students poured over the book before and after class. Ah -- but I wish it contained the pinyin so I could have used it to learn Chinese!

Rating:
Summary: Good for ESL students, Bad for Chinese students
Review: This is a bad thing for anyone learning Chinese because IT DOESNT HAVE PINYIN. BE WARNED.

However, ESL students will love this thing because of the pictures and the English.

However, IT IS WORTHLESS for AMERICANS LEARNING CHINESE.